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Mental health disorders are among the leading worldwide causes of disease and long-term disability. This issue has a long and painful history of gradual de-stigmatization of patients, coinciding with humanization of therapeutic approaches. What are the current trends in Russia regarding this issue and in what ways is it similar to and different from Western countries? IQ.HSE provides an overview of this problem based on research carried out by Svetlana Kolpakova.

On September 5, Laurie Manchester, Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University, presented her paper on voluntary repatriation of Russians from China to the Soviet Union between 1935 and 1960. The presentation was part of the research seminar, ‘Boundaries of History’, held regularly by the Department of History at HSE University in St. Petersburg. HSE News Service spoke with Laurie Manchester about her research interests, collaborating with HSE faculty members, and the latest workshop.

Dr. Sabyasachi Tripathi, from Kolkata, India, is a new research fellow at HSE University. He will be working at the Laboratory for Science and Technology Studies of the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge.

This paper sets out to analyse the need for better “transparency tools” which inform university stakeholders about the quality of universities. First, it gives an overview of what is understood by the concept of transparency tools and those that are currently available. Authors then critique current transparency tools’ methodologies, looking in detail at the question of data sources, the risks involved in constructing league tables and the challenges in using composite indicators. Lastly, authors argue in favour of developing a new principle for transparency tools: that of multidimensional ranking.

This paper sets out to analyse the need for better “transparency tools” which inform university stakeholders about the quality of universities. First, it gives an overview of what is understood by the concept of transparency tools and those that are currently available. Authors then critique current transparency tools’ methodologies, looking in detail at the question of data sources, the risks involved in constructing league tables and the challenges in using composite indicators. Lastly, authors argue in favour of developing a new principle for transparency tools: that of multidimensional ranking.

A specific feature of business conditions surveys describing actual and expected short-term trends of company financial and economic activities is the non-quantitative nature of the relevant data. To facilitate its interpretation and visualisation for various user groups, the respondents’ answers are typically aggregated into simple and composite indicators (CI). This study proposes, tests, and validates conceptual and information measurement hypotheses for building and applying such CI, which provide an integrated assessment of small entrepreneur (SE) economic sentiment. These CI demonstrate a strong, statistically significant correlation with growth cycles of reference statistical indicators. A theoretical model for building CI to measure business conditions for SE is presented, and a relevant toolset is described. Industry-specific features of building business conditions indicators are illustrated using the retail and wholesale sectors as examples. New opportunities for the visualisation and analytical presentation of the cyclic profiles of indicators are demonstrated, based on tracers tracking their phase-to-phase movement. New information and analysis-related areas are identified for the application of nonparametric data to estimate the current state and expected development of SE

The current best practices in measuring, monitoring, and forecasting economic cycles are drawn from the experience of mature economies such as the USA, Japan, and several Western European countries. Meanwhile, there are a lot of peculiarities in emerging economies that should be kept in mind when developing a system for tracking and forecasting their short-run dynamics. In the literature, there have been numerous attempts to apply the international best practices to emerging economies, but these attempts have usually been sporadic. The experience of the BRICS economies accumulated in this book allows for a fresh look on the problem of the development and use of cyclical indicators and is potentially useful for other emerging countries.

Available composite cyclical indicators for Russia are surveyed, their components are enumerated and analysed. The aims, guiding concepts, and approaches of the newly established Russian Economic Cycle Dating Committee are also described. All the currently available monthly Composite Leading Indices (CLIs) are tested against the most recent cyclical turning points for their capacity to provide a timely alarm signal, especially about an impending recession. It is shown that experts’ informal judgments about Russia’s future economic trajectory remain more informative than findings derived from formal empirical rules. This suggests that there is some room for improvement of the Russian CLIs and additional efforts should be made to construct better cyclical indicators for Russia.